Examines the role of empire in shaping ideas about Britishness after 1945

Assesses the domestic consequences of the end of empire

Uses a wide range of media sources including film, television, newsreels, and newspapers

Did loss of imperial power and the end of empire have any significant impact on metropolitan culture and identity after 1939? Within a burgeoning literature on national identity and Englishness, this is a question that has received surprisingly little attention.

Drawing on extensive research in the media archive, Wendy Webster's highly readable study investigates popular narratives of nation, and the significance of empire and its legacies in shaping national identity after 1939. What were the tensions and
uncertainties involved in defining a post-imperial nation? How did imperial legacies inform questions about who belonged in Britain and debates about race, immigration and nationality? What did the Commonwealth mean? What was the significance of America to the making of a post-imperial nation? Focusing on stories told through prolific filmic and television imagery - the Second World War, the Coronation and Everest, colonial wars of the 1950s, Winston Churchill's funeral - the book explores how far, and in what contexts and unexpected places, imperial identity and loss of imperial power resonated in popular narratives of nation.

A novel thematic focus on empire and
Englishness in the post-1945 period makes this an important study for scholars and students of modern British history, empire and Commonwealth, decolonisation, migration, gender, ethnicity, and race.

Readership: Students and scholars of twentieth-century British history and media studies; imperial and commonwealth historians; readers interested in national identity and cultural history.

Wendy Webster, Reader in Contemporary British History, University of Central Lancashire

"...an impressive book, valuable for its exhaustive and multifaceted use of sources and for the author's sophisticated perceptions of cultural change and its impact." - William D. Rubinstein, The English Historical Review

"As the first monograph to take seriously the notion that the end of empire reverberated inwardly on metropolitan culture and society, it offers a lively and stimulating corrective to the 'minimal impact' thesis." - History Workshop Journal

"Englishness and Empire represents a thoroughly researched and thought-provoking monograph, which will prove invaluable to studetns and researchers
across the humanities." - Shompa Lahiri, Journal of British Studies

"Thoroughly researched, cogently argued and lucidly written, Englishness and Empire is an important work which deserves to be accorded major currency in the historiography of national identity." - James Chapman, History

"Wendy Webster's new book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the effects of the loss of imperial power and the end of empire on British culture between 1939-65" - Catherine Hall, Twentieth-Century British History

"Webster provides an excellent starting point for post-imperial historians to consider the
complexities of the effect of the end of empire and is likely to encourage further research on the variety of responses to the empire's demise at 'home'." - Paul Ward, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

"A highly readable study ... The novel focus makes this an important study for scholars of modern British history, empire and Commonwealth, decolonization, migration, gender, ethnicity and race." - History Today

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